The following relates generally to wireless communication, and more specifically to authenticating messages in a wireless communication.
Wireless communications systems are widely deployed to provide various types of communication content such as voice, video, packet data, messaging, broadcast, and so on. These systems may be multiple-access systems capable of supporting communication with multiple users by sharing the available system resources (e.g., time, frequency, and power).
A wireless network, for example a wireless local area network (WLAN), such as a wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi) (i.e., IEEE 802.11) network may include an access point (AP) that may communicate with one or more station (STAs) or mobile devices. The AP may be coupled to a network, such as the Internet, and may enable a mobile device to communicate via the network (and/or communicate with other devices coupled to the access point). A wireless device may communicate with a network device bi-directionally. For example, in a WLAN, a STA may communicate with an associated AP via downlink (DL) and uplink (UL). The DL (or forward link) may refer to the communication link from the AP to the station, and the UL (or reverse link) may refer to the communication link from the station to the AP.
Broadcast and/or multicast messages in a Wi-Fi network offer an AP the ability to distribute data to multiple stations with a single message. Broadcast messages, however, are encrypted with a shared key to prevent unauthenticated stations from decrypting or altering broadcast message without being detected. In some instances, AP may use Group Traffic Key (GTK) and/or Integrity Group Traffic Key (IGTK) to authenticate a multicast message transmitted between the AP and a plurality of stations. However, under the above topology, all stations associated with the AP may be aware of the GTK and the IGTK that is used to encrypt messages. As a result, an adversary group member and/or a malicious non-AP station may impersonate the AP by improperly generating and broadcasting false messages.